The Almelo–Salzbergen railway is a both

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

54 kilometre long

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line, that connects

Almelo Almelo () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek. Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle o ...

with

Salzbergen Salzbergen (Dutch:''Zoutbergen'') is a municipality in the Emsland district, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the river Ems, approx. 25 km south of Lingen, and 10 km northwest of Rheine. It has the oldest oil refinery An ...

, offering a rail link between the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

History

The railway was opened by the Spoorweg-Maatschappij Almelo-Salzbergen (''English: Almelo-Salzbergen railway company'') on 18 October 1865, after construction had started in 1862. In Salzbergen the line connected with the

Emsland Railway The Emsland line (German: is a railway from Rheine via Salzbergen, Lingen, Meppen, Lathen, Papenburg and Leer to Emden, continuing to Norden and Norddeich-Mole in East Frisia in the German state of Lower Saxony. The line is named after the Ems r ...

, which had opened in 1855. The Dutch section of the line (Almelo–Oldenzaal) was electrified in 1951 and the remainder of the line was electrified in 1976. From 2006 to 2009 the line through Almelo was the subject of a major project called Almelo Verdiept (''Almelo Lowered''), which moved the railway line through the centre of Almelo into a lowered trench, with sections of tunnels.

Route

The railway connects Almelo in a south easterly direction with Hengelo. Before Hengelo station the line from

Zutphen railway station Zutphen is a railway station located in Zutphen, Netherlands. The station was opened on 2 February 1865, rebuilt after the Second World War and is located on the Arnhem–Leeuwarden railway, Zutphen–Glanerbeek railway, Amsterdam–Zutphen railwa ...

merges into the route. After the station the line to

Enschede railway station Enschede is the main railway station in Enschede, Netherlands. The station opened on 1 July 1866 and is on the Zutphen–Glanerbeek railway. Between the late 1970s and 2001, the passenger service to Germany stopped. The connection to Münster ...

branches out in a south easterly direction. From Hengelo the line heads north east towards the former border station of Oldenzaal and heads east across the border to Bad Bentheim. Here the electric current changes, which often results in a change from a Dutch to a German locomotive. At Bad Bentheim the private freight railway to

Nordhorn Nordhorn (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Nothoorn'', or ''Notthoarn'', ''Netthoarn,'' and Dutch: ''Noordhoorn'') is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the district seat of Grafschaft Bentheim, located in the southwest corner of the state, near th ...

and

Coevorden Coevorden (; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Drenthe, in the east of Netherlands, the Netherlands. During the ...

branches out, heading north. The line continues through the countryside, until the line merges with the

from

Emden Emden () is an Independent city (Germany), independent town and seaport in Lower Saxony in the north-west of Germany and lies on the River Ems (river), Ems, close to the Germany–Netherlands border, Netherlands border. It is the main town in t ...

before finishing at Salzbergen.

Train services

The Almelo–Salzbergen railway is used by the following passenger services: * International services across the whole line (Amsterdam Centraal–Berlin) * Intercity services between Almelo and Hengelo (Schiphol/The Hague–Enschede) * Intercity services between Almelo and Hengelo (Zwolle-Enschede) * Stoptrein services between Almelo and Hengelo (Apeldoorn/Zwolle–Enschede) and Hengelo–Oldenzaal (Zutphen–Oldenzaal) *

Eurobahn Eurobahn GmbH & Co. KG is a railway operator in Germany, established in 1998. It operates 15 regional train services in 4 contracts in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with cross-border services including Lower Saxony and the Netherlands. ...

services between Hengelo and Salzbergen (Hengelo–Bad Bentheim–Osnabrück–Bielefeld)

Train types

A wide variety of trains can be found regularly on the Almelo–Salzbergen railway: * Vectron on the whole Amsterdam–Berlin service * NS Koploper,

NS VIRM VIRM trains, full name Verlengd InterRegio Materieel (), are a series of electric multiple unit (EMU) double-deck trains operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen or NS (''Dutch Railways''), the principal railway operator in the Netherlands. NS has 1 ...

NS DDZ NS DDZ (Full name: DubbelDekkerZonering) were built by Waggonfabrik Talbot (momentarily a part of Bombardier), De Dietrich Ferroviaire (now Alstom DDF) and Adtranz between 1992 and 1998 and are operated in the Netherlands by Nederlandse Spoorwegen ...

on the Schiphol/The Hague–Enschede service between (Schiphol/The Hague-)Almelo and Hengelo * NS SNG on the Apeldoorn–Enschede service between (Apeldoorn-)Almelo and Hengelo(-Enschede) *

Stadler Flirt Stadler FLIRT (, ) is a passenger multiple unit trainset made by Stadler Rail of Switzerland. The baseline design of FLIRT is an electric multiple unit Articulated car, articulated trainset that can come in units of two to twelve cars with two t ...

on the Zwolle–Enschede service between (Zwolle-)Almelo and Hengelo(-Enschede) *

on the Hengelo–Bielefeld service between Hengelo and Salzbergen(-Bielefeld) * Syntus Lint41 on the Zutphen–Oldenzaal service between (Zutphen-)Hengelo and Oldenzaal. There are also large number of freight trains operating along the line.

Gallery

File:Almelo stationsgebouw.jpg, Almelo railway station File:Almelo verdiept.JPG, An International train passing the Almelo Verdiept project File:Station Borne.jpg, Borne railway station File:Station Hengelo.jpg, Hengelo railway station File:Zakspoor Hengelo.JPG, Hengelo railway station File:Bahnhof Bad Bentheim.jpg, Bad Bentheim railway station File:Museumslok Salzbergen BR 43.JPG, The steam train at Salzbergen

External links

Photo: Westfalenbahn, ET011

Photo: DB 110 468, Salzbergen

Photo: DBS 152 099 + DBS 139 132 + Autotrein
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Almelo-Salzbergen railway Railway lines in the Netherlands Railway lines in Lower Saxony International railway lines Railway lines opened in 1865 1865 establishments in Europe